Sacerdos
has been thought
to be a suspicious name for a presbyter, but though we have been unable
to find any other instance, it may be pointed out that Priest may be
found as a proper name in the clergy list of to-day.
to be a suspicious name for a presbyter, but though we have been unable
to find any other instance, it may be pointed out that Priest may be
found as a proper name in the clergy list of to-day.
Cambridge Medieval History - v2 - Rise of the Saracens and Foundation of the Western Empire
490 (#522) ############################################
490 Sacrificial Customs
party of Norwegians declared that they narrowly escaped being utilised for
that purpose on an expedition to Sweden; and the Saga of the island of
Gotland remembers the custom. On the Continent, too, human sacrifice
seems to have continued as long as heathenism, and we even hear of an
outburst of it among the converted Franks. In Friesland human beings
seem frequently to have been sacrificed by drowning. Except perhaps
in the last-named country, the victims were almost invariably prisoners
taken in war, slaves, or outlaws.
If the sacrifice was a public one—and probably in any case—it was
followed by a feast, which lasted till the ale gave out, and no longer.
A Norwegian archbishop reveals the importance of the ale even at
Christian festivals when he finds it necessary to ordain that a wedding
can yet be held, even though there be nothing but whey to celebrate it
with, and other Norwegian ecclesiastical ordinances enact that every
farmer shall brew so much ale in preparation for the various Church
festivals. The drinking itself began with sacrifice in the form of toasts
drunk to the gods, and this seems also to have been the case in Germany,
for we hear of " drinking wine for the love of the devil. " Jonas of Bobbio
relates how he found a party of men sitting round an immense vessel of
ale, who described themselves as worshipping Wodan. We also hear of an
individual in a temple " opima libamina exhibens usque ad vomitum cibo
potuque replebatur. " Centuries earlier, Tacitus tells us that when the
Romans surprised the Germans at a religious festival they cut down an
intoxicated foe. It seems that songs and dances were common at such
times, and we hear of the wearing of animal masks at Yule and at funeral
and memorial feasts1. Several other Scandinavian festivals are worthy
of notice, such as the "greeting ale" and the " ale of departure. ,, Even
when a Norwegian chief is about to flee from the swift vengeance of
Harold Fairhair, the " departure ale " has yet to be brewed. Still clearer
traces of sacrifice are discernible in the feast, for which the Norwegian
laws stipulate, on the occasion of granting rights in the family to an
illegitimate son, and also in that made by a slave on his liberation.
During the course of the great Scandinavian festivals, as well as
at other times, it appears to have been the custom for private individuals
to offer sacrifice for the purpose of propitiation or of learning their future.
The means employed in this latter case seem sometimes to have been the
sanctified twigs mentioned above. Tacitus knows of divination by twigs
and also mentions various other forms of augury. In Friesland the cast-
ing of lots seems to have played a particularly important part, and was
employed to select men for sacrifices.
We have already had occasion to refer to officiating priests. The
1 Even after the Reformation a Danish bishop finds it necessary to combat the
deep-rooted popular belief, that the more the guests drank at a funeral, the better
the dead man fared in the other world; and a French traveller says that at such
feasts the Danes drink to the souls of the dead, ce qui leurfait grand Wen.
## p. 491 (#523) ############################################
Priests. Kings. Priestesses 491
term, though permissible, is somewhat misleading, as the existence of a
special class or caste of priests in Scandinavia is much disputed, and there
seems to be considerable divergence on this point among the various
Germanic races at different times. In Iceland any leading settler who
built or came into possession of a temple officiated in it himself, and was
called a goSi (pi. gotiar), the connexion of which with goS (god) sug-
gests that the priestly function was older than the temporal authority.
In Norway the balance of probability seems to lie with the theory that
the earls and local chiefs (hersar), and probably also the petty kings, each
administered the chief temple of his district, perhaps with a gd6i or
gyftja, priestess (probably of his own family), to help him. In Sweden,
where worship was more centralised and systematised, there is some slight
evidence for the existence of gotSar, but it is clear that the king was the
high-priest of the people. It is recorded from prehistoric times that when
one of their kings failed to sacrifice the people attributed to him a famine
which ensued, and sacrificed him " for plenty. " As late as the eleventh
century they expelled their Christian king for refusal to sacrifice, and the
idea of the king's responsibility for bad weather,. for instance, can be
traced as late as the reign of Gustavus Vasa.
This idea of royal responsibility for national misfortunes is paralleled
among the Burgundians in the fourth century. For Denmark the only
evidence is the occurrence of the word gdSi on two Runic stones of about
the ninth and tenth centuries. In England there must have been a more
specialised priestly caste, with disabilities unknown to the Norwegians,
for Bede tells us that heathen priests might not bear arms. For
the Continent we have extremely little evidence. An Old German
glossary translates cotinc (formed from cot, god), not by presbyter but by
tribunus, and on the other hand the Old German iwart," guardian of law,11
and the Frisian and Low German asega, eosega, " law-sayer,11 are used to
denote " priest"; so we may perhaps assume that the functions of priest
were not very highly specialised at the close of heathendom. Tacitus
knows of a regular priesthood, whose only administrative function con-
sists in opening public assemblies (probably with a sacrifice, as in Iceland)
and in playing some part in their procedure. We hear occasionally of a
chief-priest, as among the Northumbrians, and among the Burgundians.
Among the latter he was called sinistus, and it is worth noting that
sinistans is the word chosen by Ulfilas for " elders. 11
Priestesses are rarely mentioned in the North, though they seem
to have been common among the Germans of Tacitus1 time.
The well-known statement of Tacitus, that the Germani do not
confine their gods within walls, but dedicate groves and trees to them,
does not seem to have been of universal application even in his own day.
But it is quite certain that he is right in the main with regard to the
prevalence of grove- and tree-sanctuaries. The frequent occurrence of
such place-names as the German Heiligenloh, Heiligenforst, and the
CH. XV. (c)
## p. 492 (#524) ############################################
492 Sanctuaries
Scandinavian Lund (the latter often compounded with the names of
Odin, Thor and Frey) would alone suffice to prove the earlier existence
of groves, "grim with ancient religious rites," as Claudian describes
them. Of sacred trees, perhaps the most famous was the robor Jozris
in Hesse. An interesting old Scandinavian proverb, recorded in Iceland,
may be quoted here: "One must worship an oak, if one is to live under
it. " After the erection of a temple the sacred tree may have lived on
beside it, and indeed probably conditioned the form of the temple itself.
The Icelandic temple, as we know from recent excavations, consisted of
a hall, like the hall of the ordinary dwelling-house, and at its further
end a smaller building, with slightly rounded corners, which'was the real
sanctuary, with the altar in the middle and the images of the gods,
generally three in number, standing round it. The outer hall, with its
sacred pillars and its row of fires down the middle, is thought to have
been a later addition for the convenience of worshippers, but the form of
the inner building is considered to shew descent from the tree-sanctuary.
It has been suggested that the round churches, only found on Germanic
territory, are the lineal descendants of the heathen temple, and hence of
the tree-sanctuary.
Besides the images, the inner temple contained the sacrificial bowl
and twigs, and the sacred ring which the priest wore on his arm at all
assemblies, and on which oaths were sworn. Both temple and images
appear to have been very highly decorated, sometimes even with gold and
silver.
Two other types of sanctuary deserve mention. On the Continent
we hear of pillars, apparently called Irminsul (translated universalis
columna), which may well have been a side-development from the tree-
sanctuary. Charles the Great destroyed the most famous of these, in
Westphalia. The northern hbrg is frequently assumed to have been a
stone altar or "high place. 11 But the Norwegian laws speak of " making
a house and calling it a horg. "" It is only mentioned in connexion with
female deities, or with Njord, but the occurrence of "Thorsharg"
and " Odinsharg" as place-names in Sweden renders it doubtful whether
it could have been limited to the use of female (or originally female)
deities, at any rate in Sweden. The cognate Old German haruc is
sometimes translated lucus or nemus, sometimes only by the vague
fanum; while the Anglo-Saxon hearg seems to be a comprehensive term
for any kind of sanctuary, almost corresponding to the Scandinavian
ve, though this includes Things.
In Scandinavia the violater of any sanctuary is called "wolf in holy
places," and becomes an outlaw in his own land, though we note that he
may be well received in other Scandinavian countries. In Friesland those
who broke into a temple to rob it were sacrificed to the god whom they
had offended. It is difficult to say how far, on the other hand, the
sanctuaries offered a refuge to accused persons and criminals. The abuse
## p. 493 (#525) ############################################
Funeral Customs. Life after Death 493
of the right of asylum in medieval churches—many of them only trans-
formed temples—suggests that this was a prominent characteristic of
heathen temples. On the other hand we learn from an Icelandic Saga
that the god Frey would not tolerate the presence of an outlaw even in
the neighbourhood of his temple.
It will now be convenient to consider the funeral customs of the
Teutonic races. Excavations in Scandinavia as well as literary records shew
that towards the close of heathen times the great majority of the dead
were interred in barrows, often in their ships, with some of their valuables,
and occasionally with horses, dogs and other animals. Slaves sometimes
accompany their master or mistress. Leo Diaconus informs us that in
the tenth century the Swedes in the Byzantine Empire used to kill their
captives and burn their bodies with those of their own slain, apparently
with the idea of providing their friends with servants in the next world.
The practice of suttee was not unknown, though very rare. In some
cases everything found in the barrow has been burnt, but inhumation is
the commoner practice. It is noteworthy that weapons are rarely found
in the period preceding about a. d. 500, while after that time, in the
Viking Age, weapons form the most important part of the goods placed
in the grave. It is sometimes shewn in our sources that all these objects,
including the ship, or occasionally a chariot, are provided with the
intention of supplying the dead with what they will need in the next
world, or with the means of getting there.
Besides a few indications of a belief in rebirth, there are no less than
three forms of life after death in Scandinavian belief alone. We will
begin with the most famous, Valholl (the hall of the slain), where those
who fell in battle feasted and fought into eternity. But when we come
to apply the commonly accepted theory that all those slain in fight passed
into Valholl, we find it impossible to make it fit the facts as reported to
us. A number of the Edda poems seem to know nothing about Valholl,
and despatch their mightiest warriors to the dreary abode of Hel, and
the same treatment is frequently meted out in the sagas. The likeliest
explanation seems to be that Valholl was intimately bound up with the
cult of Odin, which, as we have seen, probably entered into the lives of
a comparatively small class, and was very recent in the North. The
influence of the cult may perhaps be traced in the sudden appearance
of weapons in graves about the fifth century. The great historical
importance of the Valholl idea lies in the stimulus it gave to desperate
courage in battle. The influence of a similar belief1 among the Japanese
of our own day was evident in their war with Russia. It was no doubt
belief in some such palace of the dead, only to be reached by those
who died of wounds, which induced the aged among the Heruli to accept
a voluntary death inflicted by stabbing, and it has been shewn that the
formal "marking" of a dying man, mentioned two or three times in
1 Lafcadio Hearn, Japan, an Interpretation, p. 507.
ch. xv. (c)
## p. 494 (#526) ############################################
494. The continued Presence of the Dead
the North, is probably a substitute for the older custom of the Heruli
in the fifth or sixth century.
Hel answers to the Greek Hades, a shadowy region of which we hear
very little in the Sagas, where the word hel does indeed frequently occur,
but usually merely with the signification of " death. 11
We have already seen that the conception of a future life spent by
the ghost in or near its burial-place was by far the commonest, not
only in Scandinavia, but all over Germanic territory. It would not
be surprising to find that this, evidently the oldest belief about the dead,
was connected with the faith of Thor, and some testimony to that effect
is afforded by the inscriptions on a Runic grave-monument in Denmark:
"May Thor consecrate these mounds,11 or in two other cases "these runes. "
In Sweden we find an inscription which has been translated "Thor give
peace. " The sign of the hammer occurs on several other monuments, no
doubt with a similar force. With regard to the variant of this belief,
the "dying into mountains,11 all the evidence seems to connect it with
Thor. In two cases out of the four on record we are explicitly informed
that the persons "believed in Thor. 11 In the third case, that of the
kinsmen of one Aud, we know no further detail of their religion except
in the case of Aud^ brother, of whom it is stated that "he believed in
Christ, but invoked Thor in voyages and difficulties, and whenever he
thought it mattered most. 11
It is clearly this belief in the continued presence of the dead which
caused the widespread worship of them already discussed, and it is this
belief, too, which has peopled all Germanic territory with ghosts, whether
malignant trolls, slayers of the living, or friendly spirits.
Like all other religions, that of the Germanic peoples was a mass of
mixed elements, a jumble of many different stages of culture. Primitive
magical rites were no doubt freely practised, and in view of the age-
long survival of such rites in rustic festivals and rustic faith, it would be
the greatest mistake to belittle their importance in earlier Germanic life.
But our sources refer to them so little that we are justified in suspecting
the mass of these practices to be already declining into the observances
of popular superstition, with possibly nearly as little conscious religious
significance as to-day.
There were still traces of an early grim idea of placation by sacrifice:
the god of the dead, or the daemonic being who inhabits the sea, demands
a human life, and one must be offered that others may be safe. But except
for a few legendary instances, we see that the Germanic peoples have
progressed so far in corporate sense that the community only offers
the lives of those outside its pale—outlaws or captives to whom it
knows no obligations. Only in Friesland is there any definite evidence
that members of the community were immolated.
But the prevalent idea of sacrifice is a more comfortable one. Gifts
are made to the gods, who requite them with favours, an idea which
## p. 495 (#527) ############################################
Ideas underlying Germanic Religion 495
reflects the manners of the time, with its system of gifts and counter-
gifts, and which shews that the gods were thought of as recognising
a social bond linking them to their worshippers.
The cult of the dead reveals a sense rather of piety than of fear, for
we never find that the Scandinavians, at any rate, sank to the placation
of evil ghosts by sacrifice. They adopt other, somewhat matter-of-fact
precautions against them, such as taking the corpse out through a hole
in the wall of the house, burning and scattering the ashes, or decapitating
the ghost, though perhaps there never was a prototype in heathen times
of the delightfully ironic scene in one of the Icelandic sagas, where the
living, ousted from the fireside by the dead, hold a court of law over them
and banish them by the verdict of a jury.
On the whole, we are left with the impression that Germanic heathen-
dom was as far from being a religion of dread as it was from the formalism,
impregnated with magical ideas, which pervaded the religious system of the
Romans. Though the gods could be angry and cause famine and plague
and defeat, they were at any rate occasionally the objects of real trust and
affection, and their acknowledged favouritism is not imputed to them
as injustice. Only near the end of the heathen period do we find any
repugnance to the idea of allegiance to non-moral gods.
Perhaps the finest flower of Germanic heathendom should be sought
in the period just before its extinction—in the Viking Age, so often
accused of godlessness. In the conception of Ragnarok, which fired the
imagination of the North, we find the idea of fellowship with the
gods: fellowship, not in feasting and victory, but in stress and storm.
For the gods too are in the hands of Destiny, of a Fate ever moving
towards the end of the world, when they and the armies of the valiant
dead together make a vain stand against the race of daemonic beings,
monstrous shapes of disorder and destruction, loosed in the shattering
of the earth which precedes that Titanic struggle. The great bequests
of the heathen Germanic peoples to the new order, their courage, and
their ideal of loyalty to a leader, find their highest expression in this
vision of preordained defeat.
CH. xv. (c)
## p. 496 (#528) ############################################
406
CHAPTER XVI (a).
THE CONVERSION OF THE KELTS.
(1) ROMAN BRITAIN.
By the British Church is meant the Christian Church which existed
in England and Wales, before the foundation of the English Church
by Augustine of Canterbury, and after that event to a limited extent in
Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, and Strathclyde.
How, when, where, and by whom was it founded? To these questions
no answer is forthcoming. The legends connecting various Apostles,
and other scriptural personages, especially Joseph of Arimathaea, with
Britain may be dismissed at once. They first appear in very late
writings, and have no historical foundations.
We next come to a story which has obtained some considerable
credence because it is found in the pages of Bede. It is to the effect that
in the year a. d. 156 a British king named Lucius (Lies ap Coel) appealed
to Pope Eleutherus to be instructed in the Christian religion, that
the application was granted,, and that the king and nation were then
converted to Christianity. The story first appears in a sixth century
recension of the Liber Pontifiealis at Rome, whence Bede must have
borrowed it. It was unknown to the British historian Gildas, and it
has no other support. Bede's version of it involves chronological errors,
and Professor Harnack has recently driven the last nail into its coffin
by his brilliant suggestion or discovery that Lucius was not a British
king at all, but king of Birtha (confused with Britannia) in Edessa,
a Mesopotamian realm whose sovereign was Lucius Aelius Septimus
Megas Abgarus IX1.
But there is indirect and outside evidence that Christianity had
penetrated Britain at the end of the second century. The evidence is
patristic in its source, and general in its character. Tertullian writing
c. 208 speaks of places in Britain inaccessible to the Romans, yet subject
to Christ; and Origen writing about thirty years later refers in two
passages to the British people having come under the influence of
Christianity. But how did they so come? In the absence of precise
information, the most probable supposition is that Christianity came
through Gaul, between which country and Britain commercial intercourse
» E. H. B. xxii. pp. 767-70.
## p. 497 (#529) ############################################
Introduction of Christianity 497
was active. There may also have been individual Christians among the
Roman soldiers who were then stationed in Britain. In fact the almost
universally Latin, or at least non-Keltic names of such British martyrs,
bishops, etc. as have been preserved point to a preponderating Roman
rather than Keltic element in the British Church; though against this
it must also be remembered that, as in the cases of Patricius and
Pelagius, the names known to us may be assumed Christian names
superseding some earlier Keltic names, of which in most cases no record
has come down. Possibly the British Church consisted at first of
converts to Christianity among the Roman invaders, and of such natives
as came into immediate contact with them, and the native element only
gradually gained ground when the Roman troops were withdrawn.
The known facts are too few for a continuous British Church history
to be built upon them. The only early British historian, Gildas, c. 540,
is the author of a diatribe rather than a history. Nennius writing in
the ninth century is uncritical, and too far removed from the events
which he records to be relied upon. Geoffrey of Monmouth writing
in the twelfth century is notoriously untrustworthy and hardly deserves
the name of historian; and all extant Lives of British saints are later
than the Norman Conquest and historically almost valueless.
Yet from these and other sources the following persons and facts
emerge as historical, with probability if not certainty.
(a) Among martyrs: Alban of Verulamium, martyred, as Gildas
asserts, or according to another MS. reading, conjectures, in the per-
secution of Diocletian. But as this persecution is not known to have
reached Britain, it is more probable that the persecution in question was
that of Decius in 250-251, or that of Valerian in 259-260. Bede tells
the story at greater length, and says that the martyrdom took place
at Verulamium, now St Albans. Both Gildas and Bede evidently quote
from some early but now lost Passio S. Albani. The details may be
unhistorical, as is frequently the case in such Passiones, but it would
be unreasonable to doubt the main story, because we have the fifth
century evidence of the Gallican presbyter Constantius who writing a life
of St Germanus describes a visit of Germanus and Lupus to his sepulchre
at St Albans; and the sixth century evidence of a line in the poetry of
the Gaulish Venantius Fortunatus.
(A) Aaron and Julius of Caerleon-upon-Usk. These two martyrs are
likewise mentioned by Gildas, and though there is no early corroborative
evidence as in the case of St Alban they may be regarded as historical
personages. Bede's mention, and all later mentions of them, rested upon
the original statement of Gildas, who does not say that they were
martyred at Caerleon-upon-Usk, though this is not unlikely1.
In the Martyrology of Bede, and in many later Martyrologies and
1 A Marthir or Martyrium of Julius and Aaron is mentioned in a ninth century
charter, JAber Landavcnttin, edit. 1893, p. 225.
C. MED. H. VOL. II. CH. XVI (a). 32
## p. 498 (#530) ############################################
498 British Bishops
Kalendars, 17 Sept. is marked In Britannm [natale] Socratis et
Stephani, and in Baronius' edition of the Roman Martyrology, in 1645,
this has grown to Sanctorum Martyrum Socratis et Stephani. So 7 Feb.
is marked in Augusta [= London] natale Augusti or Auguli episcopi et
martyris. There is no early authority for the existence of these saints,
and nothing is known of their history.
(c) Among bishops: the existence of the following bishops is
known to us:
Three British bishops are recorded to have been present at the
Council of Aries in 314. They were:
1. Eborius episcopus de civitate Eboracensi provincia Britannica.
2. Restitutus episcopus de civitate Londinensi provincia supra-
scripta.
3. Adelfius episcopus de civitate Colonia Londinensium.
These British sees were fixed in Roman cities, York, London, and
Lincoln, if we may suppose that "Londinensium" is a mistake for
"Lindumensium. " Some however would read " Legionensium " and in-
terpret the word of Caerleon-upon-Usk; but this suggestion is negatived
by the fact that Caerleon never was a Roman colony.
"Eborius" has a suspicious look as the name of a bishop de civitate
Eboracensi, but similarity need not here suggest forgery. It is a
latinised form of a common Keltic name. There was a bishop Eburius
in Ireland in St Bridget's time1. They were attended by a priest named
Sacerdos, and a deacon named Arminius.
Sacerdos has been thought
to be a suspicious name for a presbyter, but though we have been unable
to find any other instance, it may be pointed out that Priest may be
found as a proper name in the clergy list of to-day.
There is no evidence for the suggestion sometimes made that British
bishops were present at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The only
difficulty in proving a direct negative is the incomplete and unsatis-
factory state of the list of signatories.
Athanasius tells us that British bishops were among the more than
three hundred bishops who voted in his favour at the Council of
Sardica in 345. But he does not mention the names of any of these
bishops, or of their sees.
There were British bishops among the four hundred or more who
met at the Council of Ariminum in 359. We know this on the authority
of Sulpicius Severus, who unfortunately mentions neither the names nor
the numbers of these bishops nor of their sees, yet adds that "there
were three bishops from Britain who, because they lacked private means,
made use of the public bounty, refusing contributions offered to them
by the rest. 11 The public bounty refers to the provision for their enter-
tainment (annonas et cellaria) which the emperor had ordered to be
offered at the public expense.
1 Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, Edinburgh, 1888, col. 66.
## p. 499 (#531) ############################################
British Saints 499
(d) Another British bishop whose name has come down to us is
Riocatus who made two journeys from Britain to Gaul to see Faustus,
a Breton and bishop of Riez (died c. 492), and carried certain works of
Faustus back to Britain.
(e) There is extant a book addressed by a British bishop named
Fastidius to a widow named Fatalis in the first half of the fifth century.
He is mentioned by Gennadius, but his see is not named, de Viris
illustr. cap. 57. His book De Vita Christiana is printed in Migne,
Pat. Lot. 102, 4.
The only other bishops known to us by name before a. d. 600 are the
famous Welsh bishops.
(f) There are in existence lists of early British, Welsh, Manx, and
Cornish bishops, for the majority of whom no certain evidence can be
produced1. Some of them, such as St David, first bishop of Menevia;
St Dubritius, first bishop of Llandaff, and his immediate successors Teilo
and Oudoceus; Kentigern and Asaph, the first two bishops of St Asaph;
Daniel, first bishop of Bangor, together with a few less known names
on the lists, are historical personages, but these belong to the sixth
and seventh century Welsh Church and stand partly outside the period
covered by this article.
It must not be forgotten that Patrick and Ninian, bishop of Candida
Casa (Whithern), were Britons, but their history belongs rather to
Ireland and Scotland than to England. The following facts may be
also worth recording as events of the sixth century.
Two bishops of the Britons came from Alba to sanctify St Bridget'.
Fifty bishops of the Britons of Cell Muine visited St Moedoc of Ferns*.
These figures indicate that the British episcopate, like that of other
parts of the Keltic Church, was monastic and numerous, rather than
diocesan and limited in number.
The Keltic saints of Britain like those of Ireland were great travellers.
Gildas asserts this. Falladius in his Historia Lausiaca speaks of British
pilgrims in Syria, and Theodoret writing c. 440 speaks of their arrival
in the Holy Land. These early independent outside testimonies make
it possible to believe many otherwise incredible stories in later Vitae
Sanctorum, e. g. that David, Teilo, and Padarn went to Jerusalem where
David received episcopal consecration, and that the Cornish St Keby
(Cuby) made a pilgrimage to the same city. References to British
travellers in Rome and Italy cease to excite wonder after this. It does
not of course follow that the Jerusalem stories are true, only that they
are within the bounds of possibility. The legends are late, and they
were probably invented to give independence and prestige to the Keltic
episcopate, as compared with the later episcopate of the English Church.
1 These lists may be seen in Stubbs (W. ), Begistrum Sacrum Anglicanum, 2nd edit.
Oxford, 1897. Appendix vn.
s Leabhar Breac, fol. 62 a. s Ibid. fol. 81.
ch. xvi (a). 32—2
## p. 500 (#532) ############################################
500 Orthodoxy of the Britons
There is no serious doubt about the orthodoxy of the British Church.
Gildas accuses its clergy of immorality, and of venality, not of heresy.
On the other hand testimony to its orthodoxy is plentiful. Athanasius
stated that the British Churches had signified by letter to him their
adhesion to the Nicene faith. Chrysostom said that "even the British
Isles have felt the power of the word, for there too churches and altars
have been erected. There too, as on the shores of the Euxine or in the
South, men may be heard discussing points in Scripture, with differing
voices but not with differing belief, with varying tongues but not with
varying faith. " Jerome asserted that " Britain in common with Rome,
Gaul, Africa, Persia, the East, and India, adores one Christ, observes
one rule of faith. " Venantius Fortunatus speaks of Britain cherishing
the faith, and Wilfrid himself, though openly hostile to the British
Church, asserted before a Council held in Rome in 680 that the true
Catholic faith prevailed throughout the British, Irish, and Pictish as well
as the English race, thus claiming for the whole Keltic Church in these
islands what Columbanus claimed for his own Irish Church, when he told
Pope Boniface that it was not schismatical or heretical, but that it held
the whole Catholic faith1.
But in defending the orthodoxy of the British Church we must not
be supposed to mean that no heretical opinions ever obtained temporary
ground, or attracted individuals.
Victricius, bishop of Rouen, came to Britain c. 896 at the request
of the bishops of North Italy. Nothing is known of the purpose of his
journey, except that in his own language it had to do with the making
of peace, it has been conjectured, in connexion with the attempted
introduction of Arianism, or of some other form of false doctrine. In
429 Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, were
sent by a Gallican synod according to Constantius, but by Pope Celes-
tine according to Prosper, to Britain to stem Pelagianism, and in 447
the same Germanus, and Severus, bishop of Treves, came to Britain for
the same purpose. Pelagianism would naturally establish a footing in
Britain because Pelagius himself was most probably a Briton by birth,
a member of one of those Gaelic families who had crossed from Ireland
and settled themselves on the south-western coast of Great Britain'.
His companion Caelestius, no doubt, was an Irishman, but Faustus of
Riez and Fastidius, both semi-Pelagian authors, were the first a Breton,
the second British, and the same may be surmised of a certain Agricola,
1 A serious attack on the orthodoxy of the British Church has been recently
made by Mr F. C. Conybeare, who seeks to prove that this Church held heretical
views about the Trinity, and did not use the Trinitarian formula in the administra-
tion of baptism (Cymmrodorion Transactions, 1897-8). It is impossible here to follow
him point by point; it must suffice to say that he does not seem to have proved bis
case.
* Bury, J. B. , Life of St Patrick, p. 15.
## p. 501 (#533) ############################################
Remains left by the British Church 501
the son of a Pelagian bishop named Severianus, who taught and spread
Pelagianism in Britain, as Prosper tells us sub an. 429. Their names
have more a Roman than a Keltic sound, but that point cannot be
pressed, because Britons frequently assumed a Roman or a Romanised
name. But thanks mainly to the Gallican bishops previously referred
to all efforts to Pelagianise the British Church were unsuccessful. The
last recorded communication between the British Church and Western
Christianity took place in 455, in which year, according to an entry in
the Annates Cambriae, the British Church changed its ancient mode of
calculating Easter, and adopted the cycle of 84 years then in use
at Rome. This was shortly afterwards exchanged at Rome for the
Victorian cycle of 532 years, and that again was changed there in the
next century for the Dionysian cycle of 19 years; but neither the
Victorian nor the Dionysian cycle was ever adopted in the British
Church, which still retained an older Roman cycle.
The archaeological evidence which is forthcoming as to the character
and even as to the existence of Christianity in Britain in Roman times
is extremely limited; nor is this to be wondered at when we consider
the wave of destruction which swept over Britain through the Saxon
invasions.
In only one case has a whole church so far survived that we can
trace the outline of the building, and measure its dimensions. This
church was recently discovered at Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum). It
bears a close resemblance to fourth century churches discovered in Italy,
Syria, and Africa. Traces of the foundations of a Roman basilica have
likewise been found underneath the churches at Reculver and Lyminge
in Kent, and at Brixworth in Northamptonshire; but whether those
basilicas were used for secular or ecclesiastical purposes is uncertain.
The only claim of the above-named churches, and of a few other churches,
such as St Martin's at Canterbury, to be regarded as Romano-British,
lies in the fact that they have a few stones or bricks of Romano-British
date used up a second time in their construction.
Apart from churches the Chi-Rho monogram (f) has been found in
the mosaics, pavements, or building stones of three villas at Frampton in
Dorsetshire, Chedworth in Gloucestershire, and Harpole in Northampton-
shire; on a silver cup at Corbridge-on-Tyne; on two silver rings from
a villa at Fifehead Neville in Dorsetshire; on some bronze fragments at
York; on some masses of pewter found in the Thames, on one of which
it is associated with A and a> and with the words spes in deo; on the
bezel of a bronze ring found at Silchester, though the nature of the
ornament in this case has been doubted1. There was also found at
Silchester a fragment of white glass with a fish and a palm roughly
scratched upon it.
There are no distinctively Christian inscriptions of a very early date,
1 Archaeologia, lv. p. 429.
CH. XVI (a).
## p. 502 (#534) ############################################
602 Inscriptions
but there are several which suggest a Christian origin by the use of the
phrase plus minus with reference to the length of a person's life, a phrase
often found on early Christian inscriptions abroad; and there are some
pagan altar inscriptions which point to a pagan restoration and a
revival after some other influence—possibly the Christian influence—had
allowed such altars to fall into neglect or decay.
Archaeological evidence is therefore in itself distinctly weak; and
yet it may be considered sufficiently strong to support facts which are
known to us on other and independent grounds; while further evidence
of this kind may be discovered hereafter.
(2) IRELAND.
No exact answer can be given to the question, When was Christianity
first introduced into Ireland?
The popular idea is that it was introduced into Ireland for the first
time by St Patrick. This is negatived by the following facts—St Patrick's
mission work in Ireland commenced in 432. It is quite true that
Patrick as a youth, aged 15-21, had spent six years in captivity in
Ireland under a heathen master named Miliucc, 405-411, but it is
impossible that at that age and under those conditions he can have done
any evangelistic work. Indeed he himself nowhere claims to have done
any. In the year before the date of St Patrick's missionary advent to
Ireland, that is to say in 431, we find the following distinct statement
made in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine," Ad Scotos in Christum
credentes ordinatur a Papa Celestino Palladius, et primus episcopus
mittitur. '"
This statement must be accepted as historical. There may be some
difficulty in interpreting it, but there is no ground whatever for doubting
it. Prosper has sometimes been accused of bias; but bias is one thing,
deliberate invention or forgery is another. Nor is there the slightest
ground for suggesting that Prosper may have been misinformed. Though
not himself a native of Great Britain or Ireland, Prosper belonged to the
neighbouring country of Gaul, which he permanently left when he went
to Rome in 440, and became secretary to Leo I as bishop of Rome.
Prosper was alive in 463, but the exact date of his death is unknown.
If Prospers statement that there were Christians in Ireland before
the arrival there of Palladius were unsupported we should feel bound to
accept it; and we are much more bound to accept it if we find it
corroborated by a series of incidents or facts which, if not conclusive
singly, have a combined weight in substantiating it.
Before enumerating these facts reference must be made to a passage
written by Prosper about six years later. In his Liber contra Collatorem,
written when Sixtus III was Pope, i. e. between 432 and 440, and
N
## p. 503 (#535) ############################################
Conversion of Ireland 503
speaking in praise of that Pope's predecessor Celestine, he says, "et
ordinato Scottis episcopo dum Romanam insnlam studet servare
catholicam fecit etiam barbaram Christianam. "
There is no allusion here to the early death of Palladius—the
episcopus referred to—nor to the failure of his mission; obviously,
writing a panegyric on Celestine, it was not to Prosper's purpose to
refer to them: nor on the other hand is there any reference to the
mission of St Patrick; though, as Prof. Bury has pointed out, if
Celestine had sent Patrick, and still more if he had consecrated him,
Prosper would almost certainly have referred to the fact, as enhancing
the achievements and the reputation of that Pope. The passage is
obviously rhetorical and need not be pressed as superseding or cancelling
any part of his statement about the mission of Palladius previously
quoted.
Its truth is supported by the following statements and allusions,
which may be legendary, because the earliest form in which they have
come down to us is several centuries later than the events to which
they refer, but which may still be true. It is hardly possible to say more
of them than this, that if they are true they imply the existence of
a pre-Patrician church in Ireland.
Tirechan records that when St Patrick ordained a certain Ailbe as
presbyter he shewed him or told him of a wonderful stone altar in the
mountain of the children of Ailill1, to which the Tripartite Life, calling
Ailbe an archpresbyter, adds that this altar was in a cave, and that
there were four glass chalices standing at the four angles of it2.
In the Additions to TirecharCs Collections it is recorded that Bishop
Colman at Cluain Cain in Achud (Clonkeen) presented his own church
to St Patrick for ever*.
Tirechan tells a story, also told with unimportant variations by
Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni4, of St Patrick finding a cross (signaculum
cruris Christi) which had been, through a mistake, erected over a
heathen's grave8.
The Lives of the Irish Saints represent some of them, e. g. Ailbeus,
Ibar, Declan, Ciaran, etc. , as older, or as partly older, partly con-
temporaneous with St Patrick. But these Lives are too late in their
present form to be accepted as historical, and are only or chiefly
valuable for Irish words, and for incidental allusions surviving in
them.
The general policy of Loigaire, High King of Ireland, 428-463, who
without apparently becoming himself a convert to Christianity was not
1 Book of Armagh, fol. 11 b. 1, in Whitley Stokes' Tripartite Life of St Patrick,
n. p. 313.
s Ibid. i. p. 95. » Ibid. fol. 17 a. 1 ; ibid. ii. p. 337.
4 Ibid. fol. 14 a. 1; ibid. n. p. 325. 6 Ibid. fol. 8 a. 1 ; ibid. n. p. 295.
CH. XVI (a).
## p. 504 (#536) ############################################
504 Times before St Patrick
hostile to its promulgation by St Patrick, and the curious policy of the
Druids concerning the advent of Patrick, betraying in its language some
acquaintance with the ritual of the Christian Church, have been noted
as indicating the previous existence of Christianity in Ireland1.
Pelagius, who must have been bom c. 370 though the exact date of
his birth is unascertained, is known on the authority of St Jerome, and
on other grounds, to have been an Irishman, and as such the presumption
is in favour of his having been born in Ireland, and of Christian parents;
but too much stress must not be laid upon this fact, or supposed fact.
Though accepted as a fact by Professor Zimmer, it has been rejected by
Professor Bury, who thinks that the evidence points to Pelagius having
been born in western Britain8. His contemporary and chief disciple,
Caelestius, was likewise an Irishman, and probably born in Ireland.
An Irish Christian named Fith, better known under his Latin or
Latinised name of Iserninus, was with St Patrick at Auxerre, was
ordained there, and also went, though somewhat against his will, when
St Patrick went, as a missionary to Ireland8.
All these facts go to substantiate the statement of Prosper that
there were "Scoti in Christum credentes" in Ireland in 431, before the
great mission of St Patrick was commenced. But how did they get
there? How did Christianity in Ireland originate? To these and such-
like questions no certain answer is forthcoming. Although Ireland was
never conquered by the Romans, and therefore never became an integral
portion of the Roman Empire, as England and the larger part of Great
Britain did, yet there are traces of Roman influence in Ireland at a very
early date.
Large and not infrequent, discoveries of Roman coins in Ireland,
ranging from the first to the fifth century, prove that there must have
been considerable intercourse during that time between Ireland and
Great Britain and the Continent; and some knowledge, possibly some
seeds, of Christianity may have been sown by Roman sailors, or merchants,
or commercial travellers.
In the third century an Irish tribe, named the Dessi, were driven
out of their home in Meath and migrated partly south into Co. Water-
ford, and partly across the sea to South Wales, where they were
permitted to form a settlement, and there are indications that they
penetrated into Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. The Dessi at this
1 E. g. by Professor Bury, to whose Life of St Patrick the writer of this chapter
is much indebted. The wording of the Druids' prophecy will be found there in two
forms, pp. 79, 299.
2 One of St Jerome's expressions is significant, "Progenies Scotticae gentis de
Britannorum vicinia. " For a complete review of the evidence see Hermathena,
xxx. p. 26.
3 Additions to Tirechan'g Collections in W. Stokes' Tripartite Life of St Patrick,
ii. p. 343.
## p. 505 (#537) ############################################
Times before St Patrick 505
time were of course not Christians, but they paved the way, or they
formed a highway, by which a century or so later British Christianity
may have reached, and probably did reach, Ireland. Irish raids into
England and Wales in the course of the fourth century may have
brought Christian captives back into Ireland, as one of such raids in the
early part of the fifth century brought the captive youth Patrick.
Inhabitants of the south-west of England, whether Brythonic occu-
piers or Goidelic settlers, establishing and pursuing intercourse with
Ireland would naturally land at Muerdea at the mouth of the Vartry
near Wicklow, or at some other port on the south-east coast of Ireland,
which is the nearest coast of Ireland to that of England; and Christian
settlers from Britain would thus influence first of all the south rather
than the north of Ireland.
There is an ingenious argument of a philological character which we
owe to the keen insight of Professor Zimmer, and which has been
explained by him at length in his Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland.
We can hardly reproduce all the linguistic details here, but a convenient
and concise summary of Zimmer's argument has been printed by Professor
Bury1. It is to this effect. A number of ecclesiastical loan-words assume
forms in Irish, which they could not have assumed if they had been
borrowed straight from the Latin, and which can only be explained by
intermediate Brythonic forms. The presence of these forms in Ireland
can, again, be best explained on the supposition that Christianity was
introduced into Ireland in the fourth century by Irish-speaking Britons;
and the further conjecture arises that the transformation of Brythonic
Latin loan-words into Irish equivalents was made in the Irish settle-
ments in western, and especially south-western, Britain, which are thereby
indicated as the channel through which the Christian religion was
transmitted originally into Ireland.
There is no authority for the legend that the British Ninian laboured
in Ireland about the commencement of the fifth century, other than an
Irish life existing in the time of Archbishop Ussher, but now lost.
Ussher unfortunately does not give its date, or supposed date, but he
quotes from it several facts which, if not impossible, do not seem to be at
all credible*. Yet the story of Ninian's connexion with Ireland gained
some footing there, for his name under the affectionate form of Moenenn
or Moinenn or Monenn—" my Nynias or Ninian "—is found at 16 Sept.
490 Sacrificial Customs
party of Norwegians declared that they narrowly escaped being utilised for
that purpose on an expedition to Sweden; and the Saga of the island of
Gotland remembers the custom. On the Continent, too, human sacrifice
seems to have continued as long as heathenism, and we even hear of an
outburst of it among the converted Franks. In Friesland human beings
seem frequently to have been sacrificed by drowning. Except perhaps
in the last-named country, the victims were almost invariably prisoners
taken in war, slaves, or outlaws.
If the sacrifice was a public one—and probably in any case—it was
followed by a feast, which lasted till the ale gave out, and no longer.
A Norwegian archbishop reveals the importance of the ale even at
Christian festivals when he finds it necessary to ordain that a wedding
can yet be held, even though there be nothing but whey to celebrate it
with, and other Norwegian ecclesiastical ordinances enact that every
farmer shall brew so much ale in preparation for the various Church
festivals. The drinking itself began with sacrifice in the form of toasts
drunk to the gods, and this seems also to have been the case in Germany,
for we hear of " drinking wine for the love of the devil. " Jonas of Bobbio
relates how he found a party of men sitting round an immense vessel of
ale, who described themselves as worshipping Wodan. We also hear of an
individual in a temple " opima libamina exhibens usque ad vomitum cibo
potuque replebatur. " Centuries earlier, Tacitus tells us that when the
Romans surprised the Germans at a religious festival they cut down an
intoxicated foe. It seems that songs and dances were common at such
times, and we hear of the wearing of animal masks at Yule and at funeral
and memorial feasts1. Several other Scandinavian festivals are worthy
of notice, such as the "greeting ale" and the " ale of departure. ,, Even
when a Norwegian chief is about to flee from the swift vengeance of
Harold Fairhair, the " departure ale " has yet to be brewed. Still clearer
traces of sacrifice are discernible in the feast, for which the Norwegian
laws stipulate, on the occasion of granting rights in the family to an
illegitimate son, and also in that made by a slave on his liberation.
During the course of the great Scandinavian festivals, as well as
at other times, it appears to have been the custom for private individuals
to offer sacrifice for the purpose of propitiation or of learning their future.
The means employed in this latter case seem sometimes to have been the
sanctified twigs mentioned above. Tacitus knows of divination by twigs
and also mentions various other forms of augury. In Friesland the cast-
ing of lots seems to have played a particularly important part, and was
employed to select men for sacrifices.
We have already had occasion to refer to officiating priests. The
1 Even after the Reformation a Danish bishop finds it necessary to combat the
deep-rooted popular belief, that the more the guests drank at a funeral, the better
the dead man fared in the other world; and a French traveller says that at such
feasts the Danes drink to the souls of the dead, ce qui leurfait grand Wen.
## p. 491 (#523) ############################################
Priests. Kings. Priestesses 491
term, though permissible, is somewhat misleading, as the existence of a
special class or caste of priests in Scandinavia is much disputed, and there
seems to be considerable divergence on this point among the various
Germanic races at different times. In Iceland any leading settler who
built or came into possession of a temple officiated in it himself, and was
called a goSi (pi. gotiar), the connexion of which with goS (god) sug-
gests that the priestly function was older than the temporal authority.
In Norway the balance of probability seems to lie with the theory that
the earls and local chiefs (hersar), and probably also the petty kings, each
administered the chief temple of his district, perhaps with a gd6i or
gyftja, priestess (probably of his own family), to help him. In Sweden,
where worship was more centralised and systematised, there is some slight
evidence for the existence of gotSar, but it is clear that the king was the
high-priest of the people. It is recorded from prehistoric times that when
one of their kings failed to sacrifice the people attributed to him a famine
which ensued, and sacrificed him " for plenty. " As late as the eleventh
century they expelled their Christian king for refusal to sacrifice, and the
idea of the king's responsibility for bad weather,. for instance, can be
traced as late as the reign of Gustavus Vasa.
This idea of royal responsibility for national misfortunes is paralleled
among the Burgundians in the fourth century. For Denmark the only
evidence is the occurrence of the word gdSi on two Runic stones of about
the ninth and tenth centuries. In England there must have been a more
specialised priestly caste, with disabilities unknown to the Norwegians,
for Bede tells us that heathen priests might not bear arms. For
the Continent we have extremely little evidence. An Old German
glossary translates cotinc (formed from cot, god), not by presbyter but by
tribunus, and on the other hand the Old German iwart," guardian of law,11
and the Frisian and Low German asega, eosega, " law-sayer,11 are used to
denote " priest"; so we may perhaps assume that the functions of priest
were not very highly specialised at the close of heathendom. Tacitus
knows of a regular priesthood, whose only administrative function con-
sists in opening public assemblies (probably with a sacrifice, as in Iceland)
and in playing some part in their procedure. We hear occasionally of a
chief-priest, as among the Northumbrians, and among the Burgundians.
Among the latter he was called sinistus, and it is worth noting that
sinistans is the word chosen by Ulfilas for " elders. 11
Priestesses are rarely mentioned in the North, though they seem
to have been common among the Germans of Tacitus1 time.
The well-known statement of Tacitus, that the Germani do not
confine their gods within walls, but dedicate groves and trees to them,
does not seem to have been of universal application even in his own day.
But it is quite certain that he is right in the main with regard to the
prevalence of grove- and tree-sanctuaries. The frequent occurrence of
such place-names as the German Heiligenloh, Heiligenforst, and the
CH. XV. (c)
## p. 492 (#524) ############################################
492 Sanctuaries
Scandinavian Lund (the latter often compounded with the names of
Odin, Thor and Frey) would alone suffice to prove the earlier existence
of groves, "grim with ancient religious rites," as Claudian describes
them. Of sacred trees, perhaps the most famous was the robor Jozris
in Hesse. An interesting old Scandinavian proverb, recorded in Iceland,
may be quoted here: "One must worship an oak, if one is to live under
it. " After the erection of a temple the sacred tree may have lived on
beside it, and indeed probably conditioned the form of the temple itself.
The Icelandic temple, as we know from recent excavations, consisted of
a hall, like the hall of the ordinary dwelling-house, and at its further
end a smaller building, with slightly rounded corners, which'was the real
sanctuary, with the altar in the middle and the images of the gods,
generally three in number, standing round it. The outer hall, with its
sacred pillars and its row of fires down the middle, is thought to have
been a later addition for the convenience of worshippers, but the form of
the inner building is considered to shew descent from the tree-sanctuary.
It has been suggested that the round churches, only found on Germanic
territory, are the lineal descendants of the heathen temple, and hence of
the tree-sanctuary.
Besides the images, the inner temple contained the sacrificial bowl
and twigs, and the sacred ring which the priest wore on his arm at all
assemblies, and on which oaths were sworn. Both temple and images
appear to have been very highly decorated, sometimes even with gold and
silver.
Two other types of sanctuary deserve mention. On the Continent
we hear of pillars, apparently called Irminsul (translated universalis
columna), which may well have been a side-development from the tree-
sanctuary. Charles the Great destroyed the most famous of these, in
Westphalia. The northern hbrg is frequently assumed to have been a
stone altar or "high place. 11 But the Norwegian laws speak of " making
a house and calling it a horg. "" It is only mentioned in connexion with
female deities, or with Njord, but the occurrence of "Thorsharg"
and " Odinsharg" as place-names in Sweden renders it doubtful whether
it could have been limited to the use of female (or originally female)
deities, at any rate in Sweden. The cognate Old German haruc is
sometimes translated lucus or nemus, sometimes only by the vague
fanum; while the Anglo-Saxon hearg seems to be a comprehensive term
for any kind of sanctuary, almost corresponding to the Scandinavian
ve, though this includes Things.
In Scandinavia the violater of any sanctuary is called "wolf in holy
places," and becomes an outlaw in his own land, though we note that he
may be well received in other Scandinavian countries. In Friesland those
who broke into a temple to rob it were sacrificed to the god whom they
had offended. It is difficult to say how far, on the other hand, the
sanctuaries offered a refuge to accused persons and criminals. The abuse
## p. 493 (#525) ############################################
Funeral Customs. Life after Death 493
of the right of asylum in medieval churches—many of them only trans-
formed temples—suggests that this was a prominent characteristic of
heathen temples. On the other hand we learn from an Icelandic Saga
that the god Frey would not tolerate the presence of an outlaw even in
the neighbourhood of his temple.
It will now be convenient to consider the funeral customs of the
Teutonic races. Excavations in Scandinavia as well as literary records shew
that towards the close of heathen times the great majority of the dead
were interred in barrows, often in their ships, with some of their valuables,
and occasionally with horses, dogs and other animals. Slaves sometimes
accompany their master or mistress. Leo Diaconus informs us that in
the tenth century the Swedes in the Byzantine Empire used to kill their
captives and burn their bodies with those of their own slain, apparently
with the idea of providing their friends with servants in the next world.
The practice of suttee was not unknown, though very rare. In some
cases everything found in the barrow has been burnt, but inhumation is
the commoner practice. It is noteworthy that weapons are rarely found
in the period preceding about a. d. 500, while after that time, in the
Viking Age, weapons form the most important part of the goods placed
in the grave. It is sometimes shewn in our sources that all these objects,
including the ship, or occasionally a chariot, are provided with the
intention of supplying the dead with what they will need in the next
world, or with the means of getting there.
Besides a few indications of a belief in rebirth, there are no less than
three forms of life after death in Scandinavian belief alone. We will
begin with the most famous, Valholl (the hall of the slain), where those
who fell in battle feasted and fought into eternity. But when we come
to apply the commonly accepted theory that all those slain in fight passed
into Valholl, we find it impossible to make it fit the facts as reported to
us. A number of the Edda poems seem to know nothing about Valholl,
and despatch their mightiest warriors to the dreary abode of Hel, and
the same treatment is frequently meted out in the sagas. The likeliest
explanation seems to be that Valholl was intimately bound up with the
cult of Odin, which, as we have seen, probably entered into the lives of
a comparatively small class, and was very recent in the North. The
influence of the cult may perhaps be traced in the sudden appearance
of weapons in graves about the fifth century. The great historical
importance of the Valholl idea lies in the stimulus it gave to desperate
courage in battle. The influence of a similar belief1 among the Japanese
of our own day was evident in their war with Russia. It was no doubt
belief in some such palace of the dead, only to be reached by those
who died of wounds, which induced the aged among the Heruli to accept
a voluntary death inflicted by stabbing, and it has been shewn that the
formal "marking" of a dying man, mentioned two or three times in
1 Lafcadio Hearn, Japan, an Interpretation, p. 507.
ch. xv. (c)
## p. 494 (#526) ############################################
494. The continued Presence of the Dead
the North, is probably a substitute for the older custom of the Heruli
in the fifth or sixth century.
Hel answers to the Greek Hades, a shadowy region of which we hear
very little in the Sagas, where the word hel does indeed frequently occur,
but usually merely with the signification of " death. 11
We have already seen that the conception of a future life spent by
the ghost in or near its burial-place was by far the commonest, not
only in Scandinavia, but all over Germanic territory. It would not
be surprising to find that this, evidently the oldest belief about the dead,
was connected with the faith of Thor, and some testimony to that effect
is afforded by the inscriptions on a Runic grave-monument in Denmark:
"May Thor consecrate these mounds,11 or in two other cases "these runes. "
In Sweden we find an inscription which has been translated "Thor give
peace. " The sign of the hammer occurs on several other monuments, no
doubt with a similar force. With regard to the variant of this belief,
the "dying into mountains,11 all the evidence seems to connect it with
Thor. In two cases out of the four on record we are explicitly informed
that the persons "believed in Thor. 11 In the third case, that of the
kinsmen of one Aud, we know no further detail of their religion except
in the case of Aud^ brother, of whom it is stated that "he believed in
Christ, but invoked Thor in voyages and difficulties, and whenever he
thought it mattered most. 11
It is clearly this belief in the continued presence of the dead which
caused the widespread worship of them already discussed, and it is this
belief, too, which has peopled all Germanic territory with ghosts, whether
malignant trolls, slayers of the living, or friendly spirits.
Like all other religions, that of the Germanic peoples was a mass of
mixed elements, a jumble of many different stages of culture. Primitive
magical rites were no doubt freely practised, and in view of the age-
long survival of such rites in rustic festivals and rustic faith, it would be
the greatest mistake to belittle their importance in earlier Germanic life.
But our sources refer to them so little that we are justified in suspecting
the mass of these practices to be already declining into the observances
of popular superstition, with possibly nearly as little conscious religious
significance as to-day.
There were still traces of an early grim idea of placation by sacrifice:
the god of the dead, or the daemonic being who inhabits the sea, demands
a human life, and one must be offered that others may be safe. But except
for a few legendary instances, we see that the Germanic peoples have
progressed so far in corporate sense that the community only offers
the lives of those outside its pale—outlaws or captives to whom it
knows no obligations. Only in Friesland is there any definite evidence
that members of the community were immolated.
But the prevalent idea of sacrifice is a more comfortable one. Gifts
are made to the gods, who requite them with favours, an idea which
## p. 495 (#527) ############################################
Ideas underlying Germanic Religion 495
reflects the manners of the time, with its system of gifts and counter-
gifts, and which shews that the gods were thought of as recognising
a social bond linking them to their worshippers.
The cult of the dead reveals a sense rather of piety than of fear, for
we never find that the Scandinavians, at any rate, sank to the placation
of evil ghosts by sacrifice. They adopt other, somewhat matter-of-fact
precautions against them, such as taking the corpse out through a hole
in the wall of the house, burning and scattering the ashes, or decapitating
the ghost, though perhaps there never was a prototype in heathen times
of the delightfully ironic scene in one of the Icelandic sagas, where the
living, ousted from the fireside by the dead, hold a court of law over them
and banish them by the verdict of a jury.
On the whole, we are left with the impression that Germanic heathen-
dom was as far from being a religion of dread as it was from the formalism,
impregnated with magical ideas, which pervaded the religious system of the
Romans. Though the gods could be angry and cause famine and plague
and defeat, they were at any rate occasionally the objects of real trust and
affection, and their acknowledged favouritism is not imputed to them
as injustice. Only near the end of the heathen period do we find any
repugnance to the idea of allegiance to non-moral gods.
Perhaps the finest flower of Germanic heathendom should be sought
in the period just before its extinction—in the Viking Age, so often
accused of godlessness. In the conception of Ragnarok, which fired the
imagination of the North, we find the idea of fellowship with the
gods: fellowship, not in feasting and victory, but in stress and storm.
For the gods too are in the hands of Destiny, of a Fate ever moving
towards the end of the world, when they and the armies of the valiant
dead together make a vain stand against the race of daemonic beings,
monstrous shapes of disorder and destruction, loosed in the shattering
of the earth which precedes that Titanic struggle. The great bequests
of the heathen Germanic peoples to the new order, their courage, and
their ideal of loyalty to a leader, find their highest expression in this
vision of preordained defeat.
CH. xv. (c)
## p. 496 (#528) ############################################
406
CHAPTER XVI (a).
THE CONVERSION OF THE KELTS.
(1) ROMAN BRITAIN.
By the British Church is meant the Christian Church which existed
in England and Wales, before the foundation of the English Church
by Augustine of Canterbury, and after that event to a limited extent in
Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, and Strathclyde.
How, when, where, and by whom was it founded? To these questions
no answer is forthcoming. The legends connecting various Apostles,
and other scriptural personages, especially Joseph of Arimathaea, with
Britain may be dismissed at once. They first appear in very late
writings, and have no historical foundations.
We next come to a story which has obtained some considerable
credence because it is found in the pages of Bede. It is to the effect that
in the year a. d. 156 a British king named Lucius (Lies ap Coel) appealed
to Pope Eleutherus to be instructed in the Christian religion, that
the application was granted,, and that the king and nation were then
converted to Christianity. The story first appears in a sixth century
recension of the Liber Pontifiealis at Rome, whence Bede must have
borrowed it. It was unknown to the British historian Gildas, and it
has no other support. Bede's version of it involves chronological errors,
and Professor Harnack has recently driven the last nail into its coffin
by his brilliant suggestion or discovery that Lucius was not a British
king at all, but king of Birtha (confused with Britannia) in Edessa,
a Mesopotamian realm whose sovereign was Lucius Aelius Septimus
Megas Abgarus IX1.
But there is indirect and outside evidence that Christianity had
penetrated Britain at the end of the second century. The evidence is
patristic in its source, and general in its character. Tertullian writing
c. 208 speaks of places in Britain inaccessible to the Romans, yet subject
to Christ; and Origen writing about thirty years later refers in two
passages to the British people having come under the influence of
Christianity. But how did they so come? In the absence of precise
information, the most probable supposition is that Christianity came
through Gaul, between which country and Britain commercial intercourse
» E. H. B. xxii. pp. 767-70.
## p. 497 (#529) ############################################
Introduction of Christianity 497
was active. There may also have been individual Christians among the
Roman soldiers who were then stationed in Britain. In fact the almost
universally Latin, or at least non-Keltic names of such British martyrs,
bishops, etc. as have been preserved point to a preponderating Roman
rather than Keltic element in the British Church; though against this
it must also be remembered that, as in the cases of Patricius and
Pelagius, the names known to us may be assumed Christian names
superseding some earlier Keltic names, of which in most cases no record
has come down. Possibly the British Church consisted at first of
converts to Christianity among the Roman invaders, and of such natives
as came into immediate contact with them, and the native element only
gradually gained ground when the Roman troops were withdrawn.
The known facts are too few for a continuous British Church history
to be built upon them. The only early British historian, Gildas, c. 540,
is the author of a diatribe rather than a history. Nennius writing in
the ninth century is uncritical, and too far removed from the events
which he records to be relied upon. Geoffrey of Monmouth writing
in the twelfth century is notoriously untrustworthy and hardly deserves
the name of historian; and all extant Lives of British saints are later
than the Norman Conquest and historically almost valueless.
Yet from these and other sources the following persons and facts
emerge as historical, with probability if not certainty.
(a) Among martyrs: Alban of Verulamium, martyred, as Gildas
asserts, or according to another MS. reading, conjectures, in the per-
secution of Diocletian. But as this persecution is not known to have
reached Britain, it is more probable that the persecution in question was
that of Decius in 250-251, or that of Valerian in 259-260. Bede tells
the story at greater length, and says that the martyrdom took place
at Verulamium, now St Albans. Both Gildas and Bede evidently quote
from some early but now lost Passio S. Albani. The details may be
unhistorical, as is frequently the case in such Passiones, but it would
be unreasonable to doubt the main story, because we have the fifth
century evidence of the Gallican presbyter Constantius who writing a life
of St Germanus describes a visit of Germanus and Lupus to his sepulchre
at St Albans; and the sixth century evidence of a line in the poetry of
the Gaulish Venantius Fortunatus.
(A) Aaron and Julius of Caerleon-upon-Usk. These two martyrs are
likewise mentioned by Gildas, and though there is no early corroborative
evidence as in the case of St Alban they may be regarded as historical
personages. Bede's mention, and all later mentions of them, rested upon
the original statement of Gildas, who does not say that they were
martyred at Caerleon-upon-Usk, though this is not unlikely1.
In the Martyrology of Bede, and in many later Martyrologies and
1 A Marthir or Martyrium of Julius and Aaron is mentioned in a ninth century
charter, JAber Landavcnttin, edit. 1893, p. 225.
C. MED. H. VOL. II. CH. XVI (a). 32
## p. 498 (#530) ############################################
498 British Bishops
Kalendars, 17 Sept. is marked In Britannm [natale] Socratis et
Stephani, and in Baronius' edition of the Roman Martyrology, in 1645,
this has grown to Sanctorum Martyrum Socratis et Stephani. So 7 Feb.
is marked in Augusta [= London] natale Augusti or Auguli episcopi et
martyris. There is no early authority for the existence of these saints,
and nothing is known of their history.
(c) Among bishops: the existence of the following bishops is
known to us:
Three British bishops are recorded to have been present at the
Council of Aries in 314. They were:
1. Eborius episcopus de civitate Eboracensi provincia Britannica.
2. Restitutus episcopus de civitate Londinensi provincia supra-
scripta.
3. Adelfius episcopus de civitate Colonia Londinensium.
These British sees were fixed in Roman cities, York, London, and
Lincoln, if we may suppose that "Londinensium" is a mistake for
"Lindumensium. " Some however would read " Legionensium " and in-
terpret the word of Caerleon-upon-Usk; but this suggestion is negatived
by the fact that Caerleon never was a Roman colony.
"Eborius" has a suspicious look as the name of a bishop de civitate
Eboracensi, but similarity need not here suggest forgery. It is a
latinised form of a common Keltic name. There was a bishop Eburius
in Ireland in St Bridget's time1. They were attended by a priest named
Sacerdos, and a deacon named Arminius.
Sacerdos has been thought
to be a suspicious name for a presbyter, but though we have been unable
to find any other instance, it may be pointed out that Priest may be
found as a proper name in the clergy list of to-day.
There is no evidence for the suggestion sometimes made that British
bishops were present at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The only
difficulty in proving a direct negative is the incomplete and unsatis-
factory state of the list of signatories.
Athanasius tells us that British bishops were among the more than
three hundred bishops who voted in his favour at the Council of
Sardica in 345. But he does not mention the names of any of these
bishops, or of their sees.
There were British bishops among the four hundred or more who
met at the Council of Ariminum in 359. We know this on the authority
of Sulpicius Severus, who unfortunately mentions neither the names nor
the numbers of these bishops nor of their sees, yet adds that "there
were three bishops from Britain who, because they lacked private means,
made use of the public bounty, refusing contributions offered to them
by the rest. 11 The public bounty refers to the provision for their enter-
tainment (annonas et cellaria) which the emperor had ordered to be
offered at the public expense.
1 Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, Edinburgh, 1888, col. 66.
## p. 499 (#531) ############################################
British Saints 499
(d) Another British bishop whose name has come down to us is
Riocatus who made two journeys from Britain to Gaul to see Faustus,
a Breton and bishop of Riez (died c. 492), and carried certain works of
Faustus back to Britain.
(e) There is extant a book addressed by a British bishop named
Fastidius to a widow named Fatalis in the first half of the fifth century.
He is mentioned by Gennadius, but his see is not named, de Viris
illustr. cap. 57. His book De Vita Christiana is printed in Migne,
Pat. Lot. 102, 4.
The only other bishops known to us by name before a. d. 600 are the
famous Welsh bishops.
(f) There are in existence lists of early British, Welsh, Manx, and
Cornish bishops, for the majority of whom no certain evidence can be
produced1. Some of them, such as St David, first bishop of Menevia;
St Dubritius, first bishop of Llandaff, and his immediate successors Teilo
and Oudoceus; Kentigern and Asaph, the first two bishops of St Asaph;
Daniel, first bishop of Bangor, together with a few less known names
on the lists, are historical personages, but these belong to the sixth
and seventh century Welsh Church and stand partly outside the period
covered by this article.
It must not be forgotten that Patrick and Ninian, bishop of Candida
Casa (Whithern), were Britons, but their history belongs rather to
Ireland and Scotland than to England. The following facts may be
also worth recording as events of the sixth century.
Two bishops of the Britons came from Alba to sanctify St Bridget'.
Fifty bishops of the Britons of Cell Muine visited St Moedoc of Ferns*.
These figures indicate that the British episcopate, like that of other
parts of the Keltic Church, was monastic and numerous, rather than
diocesan and limited in number.
The Keltic saints of Britain like those of Ireland were great travellers.
Gildas asserts this. Falladius in his Historia Lausiaca speaks of British
pilgrims in Syria, and Theodoret writing c. 440 speaks of their arrival
in the Holy Land. These early independent outside testimonies make
it possible to believe many otherwise incredible stories in later Vitae
Sanctorum, e. g. that David, Teilo, and Padarn went to Jerusalem where
David received episcopal consecration, and that the Cornish St Keby
(Cuby) made a pilgrimage to the same city. References to British
travellers in Rome and Italy cease to excite wonder after this. It does
not of course follow that the Jerusalem stories are true, only that they
are within the bounds of possibility. The legends are late, and they
were probably invented to give independence and prestige to the Keltic
episcopate, as compared with the later episcopate of the English Church.
1 These lists may be seen in Stubbs (W. ), Begistrum Sacrum Anglicanum, 2nd edit.
Oxford, 1897. Appendix vn.
s Leabhar Breac, fol. 62 a. s Ibid. fol. 81.
ch. xvi (a). 32—2
## p. 500 (#532) ############################################
500 Orthodoxy of the Britons
There is no serious doubt about the orthodoxy of the British Church.
Gildas accuses its clergy of immorality, and of venality, not of heresy.
On the other hand testimony to its orthodoxy is plentiful. Athanasius
stated that the British Churches had signified by letter to him their
adhesion to the Nicene faith. Chrysostom said that "even the British
Isles have felt the power of the word, for there too churches and altars
have been erected. There too, as on the shores of the Euxine or in the
South, men may be heard discussing points in Scripture, with differing
voices but not with differing belief, with varying tongues but not with
varying faith. " Jerome asserted that " Britain in common with Rome,
Gaul, Africa, Persia, the East, and India, adores one Christ, observes
one rule of faith. " Venantius Fortunatus speaks of Britain cherishing
the faith, and Wilfrid himself, though openly hostile to the British
Church, asserted before a Council held in Rome in 680 that the true
Catholic faith prevailed throughout the British, Irish, and Pictish as well
as the English race, thus claiming for the whole Keltic Church in these
islands what Columbanus claimed for his own Irish Church, when he told
Pope Boniface that it was not schismatical or heretical, but that it held
the whole Catholic faith1.
But in defending the orthodoxy of the British Church we must not
be supposed to mean that no heretical opinions ever obtained temporary
ground, or attracted individuals.
Victricius, bishop of Rouen, came to Britain c. 896 at the request
of the bishops of North Italy. Nothing is known of the purpose of his
journey, except that in his own language it had to do with the making
of peace, it has been conjectured, in connexion with the attempted
introduction of Arianism, or of some other form of false doctrine. In
429 Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, were
sent by a Gallican synod according to Constantius, but by Pope Celes-
tine according to Prosper, to Britain to stem Pelagianism, and in 447
the same Germanus, and Severus, bishop of Treves, came to Britain for
the same purpose. Pelagianism would naturally establish a footing in
Britain because Pelagius himself was most probably a Briton by birth,
a member of one of those Gaelic families who had crossed from Ireland
and settled themselves on the south-western coast of Great Britain'.
His companion Caelestius, no doubt, was an Irishman, but Faustus of
Riez and Fastidius, both semi-Pelagian authors, were the first a Breton,
the second British, and the same may be surmised of a certain Agricola,
1 A serious attack on the orthodoxy of the British Church has been recently
made by Mr F. C. Conybeare, who seeks to prove that this Church held heretical
views about the Trinity, and did not use the Trinitarian formula in the administra-
tion of baptism (Cymmrodorion Transactions, 1897-8). It is impossible here to follow
him point by point; it must suffice to say that he does not seem to have proved bis
case.
* Bury, J. B. , Life of St Patrick, p. 15.
## p. 501 (#533) ############################################
Remains left by the British Church 501
the son of a Pelagian bishop named Severianus, who taught and spread
Pelagianism in Britain, as Prosper tells us sub an. 429. Their names
have more a Roman than a Keltic sound, but that point cannot be
pressed, because Britons frequently assumed a Roman or a Romanised
name. But thanks mainly to the Gallican bishops previously referred
to all efforts to Pelagianise the British Church were unsuccessful. The
last recorded communication between the British Church and Western
Christianity took place in 455, in which year, according to an entry in
the Annates Cambriae, the British Church changed its ancient mode of
calculating Easter, and adopted the cycle of 84 years then in use
at Rome. This was shortly afterwards exchanged at Rome for the
Victorian cycle of 532 years, and that again was changed there in the
next century for the Dionysian cycle of 19 years; but neither the
Victorian nor the Dionysian cycle was ever adopted in the British
Church, which still retained an older Roman cycle.
The archaeological evidence which is forthcoming as to the character
and even as to the existence of Christianity in Britain in Roman times
is extremely limited; nor is this to be wondered at when we consider
the wave of destruction which swept over Britain through the Saxon
invasions.
In only one case has a whole church so far survived that we can
trace the outline of the building, and measure its dimensions. This
church was recently discovered at Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum). It
bears a close resemblance to fourth century churches discovered in Italy,
Syria, and Africa. Traces of the foundations of a Roman basilica have
likewise been found underneath the churches at Reculver and Lyminge
in Kent, and at Brixworth in Northamptonshire; but whether those
basilicas were used for secular or ecclesiastical purposes is uncertain.
The only claim of the above-named churches, and of a few other churches,
such as St Martin's at Canterbury, to be regarded as Romano-British,
lies in the fact that they have a few stones or bricks of Romano-British
date used up a second time in their construction.
Apart from churches the Chi-Rho monogram (f) has been found in
the mosaics, pavements, or building stones of three villas at Frampton in
Dorsetshire, Chedworth in Gloucestershire, and Harpole in Northampton-
shire; on a silver cup at Corbridge-on-Tyne; on two silver rings from
a villa at Fifehead Neville in Dorsetshire; on some bronze fragments at
York; on some masses of pewter found in the Thames, on one of which
it is associated with A and a> and with the words spes in deo; on the
bezel of a bronze ring found at Silchester, though the nature of the
ornament in this case has been doubted1. There was also found at
Silchester a fragment of white glass with a fish and a palm roughly
scratched upon it.
There are no distinctively Christian inscriptions of a very early date,
1 Archaeologia, lv. p. 429.
CH. XVI (a).
## p. 502 (#534) ############################################
602 Inscriptions
but there are several which suggest a Christian origin by the use of the
phrase plus minus with reference to the length of a person's life, a phrase
often found on early Christian inscriptions abroad; and there are some
pagan altar inscriptions which point to a pagan restoration and a
revival after some other influence—possibly the Christian influence—had
allowed such altars to fall into neglect or decay.
Archaeological evidence is therefore in itself distinctly weak; and
yet it may be considered sufficiently strong to support facts which are
known to us on other and independent grounds; while further evidence
of this kind may be discovered hereafter.
(2) IRELAND.
No exact answer can be given to the question, When was Christianity
first introduced into Ireland?
The popular idea is that it was introduced into Ireland for the first
time by St Patrick. This is negatived by the following facts—St Patrick's
mission work in Ireland commenced in 432. It is quite true that
Patrick as a youth, aged 15-21, had spent six years in captivity in
Ireland under a heathen master named Miliucc, 405-411, but it is
impossible that at that age and under those conditions he can have done
any evangelistic work. Indeed he himself nowhere claims to have done
any. In the year before the date of St Patrick's missionary advent to
Ireland, that is to say in 431, we find the following distinct statement
made in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine," Ad Scotos in Christum
credentes ordinatur a Papa Celestino Palladius, et primus episcopus
mittitur. '"
This statement must be accepted as historical. There may be some
difficulty in interpreting it, but there is no ground whatever for doubting
it. Prosper has sometimes been accused of bias; but bias is one thing,
deliberate invention or forgery is another. Nor is there the slightest
ground for suggesting that Prosper may have been misinformed. Though
not himself a native of Great Britain or Ireland, Prosper belonged to the
neighbouring country of Gaul, which he permanently left when he went
to Rome in 440, and became secretary to Leo I as bishop of Rome.
Prosper was alive in 463, but the exact date of his death is unknown.
If Prospers statement that there were Christians in Ireland before
the arrival there of Palladius were unsupported we should feel bound to
accept it; and we are much more bound to accept it if we find it
corroborated by a series of incidents or facts which, if not conclusive
singly, have a combined weight in substantiating it.
Before enumerating these facts reference must be made to a passage
written by Prosper about six years later. In his Liber contra Collatorem,
written when Sixtus III was Pope, i. e. between 432 and 440, and
N
## p. 503 (#535) ############################################
Conversion of Ireland 503
speaking in praise of that Pope's predecessor Celestine, he says, "et
ordinato Scottis episcopo dum Romanam insnlam studet servare
catholicam fecit etiam barbaram Christianam. "
There is no allusion here to the early death of Palladius—the
episcopus referred to—nor to the failure of his mission; obviously,
writing a panegyric on Celestine, it was not to Prosper's purpose to
refer to them: nor on the other hand is there any reference to the
mission of St Patrick; though, as Prof. Bury has pointed out, if
Celestine had sent Patrick, and still more if he had consecrated him,
Prosper would almost certainly have referred to the fact, as enhancing
the achievements and the reputation of that Pope. The passage is
obviously rhetorical and need not be pressed as superseding or cancelling
any part of his statement about the mission of Palladius previously
quoted.
Its truth is supported by the following statements and allusions,
which may be legendary, because the earliest form in which they have
come down to us is several centuries later than the events to which
they refer, but which may still be true. It is hardly possible to say more
of them than this, that if they are true they imply the existence of
a pre-Patrician church in Ireland.
Tirechan records that when St Patrick ordained a certain Ailbe as
presbyter he shewed him or told him of a wonderful stone altar in the
mountain of the children of Ailill1, to which the Tripartite Life, calling
Ailbe an archpresbyter, adds that this altar was in a cave, and that
there were four glass chalices standing at the four angles of it2.
In the Additions to TirecharCs Collections it is recorded that Bishop
Colman at Cluain Cain in Achud (Clonkeen) presented his own church
to St Patrick for ever*.
Tirechan tells a story, also told with unimportant variations by
Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni4, of St Patrick finding a cross (signaculum
cruris Christi) which had been, through a mistake, erected over a
heathen's grave8.
The Lives of the Irish Saints represent some of them, e. g. Ailbeus,
Ibar, Declan, Ciaran, etc. , as older, or as partly older, partly con-
temporaneous with St Patrick. But these Lives are too late in their
present form to be accepted as historical, and are only or chiefly
valuable for Irish words, and for incidental allusions surviving in
them.
The general policy of Loigaire, High King of Ireland, 428-463, who
without apparently becoming himself a convert to Christianity was not
1 Book of Armagh, fol. 11 b. 1, in Whitley Stokes' Tripartite Life of St Patrick,
n. p. 313.
s Ibid. i. p. 95. » Ibid. fol. 17 a. 1 ; ibid. ii. p. 337.
4 Ibid. fol. 14 a. 1; ibid. n. p. 325. 6 Ibid. fol. 8 a. 1 ; ibid. n. p. 295.
CH. XVI (a).
## p. 504 (#536) ############################################
504 Times before St Patrick
hostile to its promulgation by St Patrick, and the curious policy of the
Druids concerning the advent of Patrick, betraying in its language some
acquaintance with the ritual of the Christian Church, have been noted
as indicating the previous existence of Christianity in Ireland1.
Pelagius, who must have been bom c. 370 though the exact date of
his birth is unascertained, is known on the authority of St Jerome, and
on other grounds, to have been an Irishman, and as such the presumption
is in favour of his having been born in Ireland, and of Christian parents;
but too much stress must not be laid upon this fact, or supposed fact.
Though accepted as a fact by Professor Zimmer, it has been rejected by
Professor Bury, who thinks that the evidence points to Pelagius having
been born in western Britain8. His contemporary and chief disciple,
Caelestius, was likewise an Irishman, and probably born in Ireland.
An Irish Christian named Fith, better known under his Latin or
Latinised name of Iserninus, was with St Patrick at Auxerre, was
ordained there, and also went, though somewhat against his will, when
St Patrick went, as a missionary to Ireland8.
All these facts go to substantiate the statement of Prosper that
there were "Scoti in Christum credentes" in Ireland in 431, before the
great mission of St Patrick was commenced. But how did they get
there? How did Christianity in Ireland originate? To these and such-
like questions no certain answer is forthcoming. Although Ireland was
never conquered by the Romans, and therefore never became an integral
portion of the Roman Empire, as England and the larger part of Great
Britain did, yet there are traces of Roman influence in Ireland at a very
early date.
Large and not infrequent, discoveries of Roman coins in Ireland,
ranging from the first to the fifth century, prove that there must have
been considerable intercourse during that time between Ireland and
Great Britain and the Continent; and some knowledge, possibly some
seeds, of Christianity may have been sown by Roman sailors, or merchants,
or commercial travellers.
In the third century an Irish tribe, named the Dessi, were driven
out of their home in Meath and migrated partly south into Co. Water-
ford, and partly across the sea to South Wales, where they were
permitted to form a settlement, and there are indications that they
penetrated into Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. The Dessi at this
1 E. g. by Professor Bury, to whose Life of St Patrick the writer of this chapter
is much indebted. The wording of the Druids' prophecy will be found there in two
forms, pp. 79, 299.
2 One of St Jerome's expressions is significant, "Progenies Scotticae gentis de
Britannorum vicinia. " For a complete review of the evidence see Hermathena,
xxx. p. 26.
3 Additions to Tirechan'g Collections in W. Stokes' Tripartite Life of St Patrick,
ii. p. 343.
## p. 505 (#537) ############################################
Times before St Patrick 505
time were of course not Christians, but they paved the way, or they
formed a highway, by which a century or so later British Christianity
may have reached, and probably did reach, Ireland. Irish raids into
England and Wales in the course of the fourth century may have
brought Christian captives back into Ireland, as one of such raids in the
early part of the fifth century brought the captive youth Patrick.
Inhabitants of the south-west of England, whether Brythonic occu-
piers or Goidelic settlers, establishing and pursuing intercourse with
Ireland would naturally land at Muerdea at the mouth of the Vartry
near Wicklow, or at some other port on the south-east coast of Ireland,
which is the nearest coast of Ireland to that of England; and Christian
settlers from Britain would thus influence first of all the south rather
than the north of Ireland.
There is an ingenious argument of a philological character which we
owe to the keen insight of Professor Zimmer, and which has been
explained by him at length in his Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland.
We can hardly reproduce all the linguistic details here, but a convenient
and concise summary of Zimmer's argument has been printed by Professor
Bury1. It is to this effect. A number of ecclesiastical loan-words assume
forms in Irish, which they could not have assumed if they had been
borrowed straight from the Latin, and which can only be explained by
intermediate Brythonic forms. The presence of these forms in Ireland
can, again, be best explained on the supposition that Christianity was
introduced into Ireland in the fourth century by Irish-speaking Britons;
and the further conjecture arises that the transformation of Brythonic
Latin loan-words into Irish equivalents was made in the Irish settle-
ments in western, and especially south-western, Britain, which are thereby
indicated as the channel through which the Christian religion was
transmitted originally into Ireland.
There is no authority for the legend that the British Ninian laboured
in Ireland about the commencement of the fifth century, other than an
Irish life existing in the time of Archbishop Ussher, but now lost.
Ussher unfortunately does not give its date, or supposed date, but he
quotes from it several facts which, if not impossible, do not seem to be at
all credible*. Yet the story of Ninian's connexion with Ireland gained
some footing there, for his name under the affectionate form of Moenenn
or Moinenn or Monenn—" my Nynias or Ninian "—is found at 16 Sept.
